Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Siflutter
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Rexanne
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
ksf-2
Mitchum is the U.S. forces colonel, trying to train the Korean army in warfare, while Ann Blyth is the interpreter "Linda". Of course, they disagree on everything, but naturally they fall in love, in spite of themselves. Even back then, they make the comment that "Nato will just pass some more strongly worded resolutions." This is extra interesting, since the war was still going on when this film was released. Viewers will also spot William Talman, in an early role here, who would go on to be the DA on Perry Mason. He died young at 53. Great flick, overall. They toss in joking one-liners, although they sometimes feel out of place, since there's so much death and dying all around them. Directed by Tay Garnett. He had a great track record, making some of the great films of Hollywood. Showing on Turner Classics.
C.K. Dexter Haven
Or possibly We Were Soldiers? Surely this must be one of the movies that made a deep impression on Randall Wallace when he was a kid. An early 50's war movie from the slobbering right. The UN didn't fare any better in their minds in 1952 than it does now. Mitchum takes on The North Koreans with two pumped up right arms, demonstrating one minute to zero patience for the dovish views of UN worker, Ann Blyth, but falling in love with her and converting her all the same. In fact, all it takes for her to see the light in mitchum's soul is to see him shell civilian refugees into kibble then justify it because 'half' of them were communist infiltrators anyway.what a ridiculous piece of propaganda. Sure, wars need to be fought, that is indisputable, but not in every case, and war movies should never be so blindingly simpleminded and stupid, pandering on behalf of the Pentagon to the lowest brow audience for support. This is strictly the kind of post WW2 arrogance movie that made right wing war lovers what they are today. Let's just kick ass and shut up the pansy eggheads with a kiss, because we're the real men and war is necessary everywhere all the time. Kicking ass is what God made America for, talk is for lovers, and a machine gun and a box of ammo is the ONLY solution always.Interesting that it was a war entered into by a left wing President. The Right Wing no doubt loved him for it, taking on those commie gook cousins of Uncle Joe.Until he canned MacArthur.Brash American machismo doesn't begin to sum up this film. Fetish porn for freeps and muscleheads. It stars three of my favorite actors too. Robert Mitchum, Charles McGraw and Richard Egan I would watch in anything. This just proved not everything they made is worth a damn.
Melvin M. Carter
"Pork Chop Hill" with Gregory Peck, "The Men" with Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray "Fix Bayonets" with Richard Basehart and "The Steel Helmet" with Gene Evans who also starred in "Fix Bayonets", are the top Korean War dramas. This one seems like a second bill WWII git them Nazis and Jap films. The romance angle: the reluctant widow/woman trying to fight off her addiction to gunslingers can be seen played out in westerns and gangster flicks. Robert Mitchum is not as human as he was in "The Story of GI JOE" instead this "Mustang" ( Old Army-ese for a ranker who made it to the officer class without a West Point, VMI, or a well placed political connection) just is Ares gift to the warrior class. Charles McGraw and William Talman two of the best sinister looking and sounding actors of their era, become bland nonentities in this flick. There are some grim moments: Talman's descent into a flaming hutch after his recon plane is shot down, the North Korean infiltrated refugee column being blasted apart,and the gradual attrition on Mitchum and McGraw's outfit ( the film is set right at the beginning of the Korean "ShootOut" before MacArthur's Inchon Landing temporarily turned the tide) but overall there is a lack of tension and good action set pieces to make this film a contender as a Good war movie/Action Film. Perhap's director Tay Garnett suffered from MGM-itis every thing must be pretty because this movie ain't hard or gritty enough. Now if Aldrich,Siegal, Fuller,or Milestone had directed it...
semperfijack
The one good thing about this so-so Korean war film is the music score by Victor Young. It features the great romantic song "When I Fall in Love" Although not sung in the film (therefore not Academy Award nominated) it was recorded by Nat "King" Cole and others. Cole's is the best and is featured on many of his albums.
